a The islands of
Cape Verde are to the west of the African mainland. bMauritius and the
Seychelles are to the east and north-east of Madagascar respectively.
A number of African countries use
UTC+02:00 all year long, where it is called
Central Africa Time (CAT),[1] although
Egypt and
Libya also use the term Eastern European Time.[2]
The most populous city in the Eastern European Time zone is
Cairo, with the most populous EET city in Europe being
Kyiv.
Usage
The following countries, parts of countries, and territories use Eastern European Time all year round:
Libya, since 27 October 2013; switched from
Central European Time, which was used in 2012. Used year-round EET from 1980–1981, 1990–1996 and 1998–2012.
The following countries, parts of countries, and territories use Eastern European Time during the winter only:
Bulgaria, since 1894, except between 1942 and 1945
Syria used EET until permanently switching to DST in 2022.[5]
Turkey, used EET in years 1910–1978 and re-used it again in years 1985–2016.[6]
Sometimes, due to its use on
Microsoft Windows,[7] FLE Standard Time (for Finland, Lithuania, Estonia,[8] or sometimes Finland, Latvia, Estonia[9]) or GTB Standard Time (for Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria) are used to refer to Eastern European Time.
Anomalies
Since political, in addition to purely geographical, criteria are used in the drawing of time zones, it follows that time zones do not precisely adhere to meridian lines. The EET (
UTC+02:00) time zone, were it drawn by purely geographical terms, would consist of exactly the area between meridians 22°30' E and 37°30' E. As a result, there are European locales that despite lying in an area with a "physical"
UTC+02:00 time, are in another time zone; likewise, there are European areas that have gone for
UTC+02:00, even though their "physical" time zone is different from that. Following is a list of such anomalies:
Areas located outside
UTC+02:00 longitudes using Eastern European Time (
UTC+02:00) time
The southwestern coast of
Finland, including the city of
Turku; also the
Åland islands (of Finnish jurisdiction) – the
Åland islands are the westernmost locale applying EET in the whole of Europe
Most of the following countries use winter time year round, so they coincide with Eastern European Summer Time in summer.
Belarus is located between 23°11′E and 32°47′E and is thus fully located with the physical
UTC+02:00 area, but it uses
UTC+03:00 year around.
Practically all
European Russia west of Moscow (except
Kaliningrad Oblast); this includes the chunk of land from
Murmansk all the way south to
Belgorod, including the cities of
St. Petersburg,
Novgorod, and
Pskov, to name only a few. (The westernmost point of contiguous Russia, near
Lavry,
Pskov Oblast, 27°19' E, is the westernmost point in European Russia where
UTC+03:00 is applied.) This also includes the city of
Anapa, at the westernmost tip of the
Krasnodar Krai near the entrance to the Sea of Azov, at 37°22' E.
Parts of western
Syria, including the capital
Damascus
Western half of
Turkey, including the capital
Ankara and the most populous city
Istanbul
Tripoints and borders between zones
The Norway–Russia–Finland "tri-zone" point at
Muotkavaara (see
Central European Time) is surrounded by three different times in winter, two in summer. It had three time zones year-around before 2014.
Two of the four tripoints of
Belarus and the tripoint of the
Kaliningrad Region are surrounded by three different times in winter.